Lakers can Brown, throwing another West foe into disarray

Having already blown a shot at coaching the best player in the world in Cleveland, Mike Brown’s second opportunity with a prime NBA job came to a jarring end Friday with his reported firing by the Los Angeles Lakers.

Good guy? Unquestionably. Great head coach? Not so much.

At least, not in the Lakers’ eyes, who were quick to pull the trigger after they followed their 0-8 preseason with a 1-4 start.

Brown drew major criticism for trying to implement the motion-based Princeton offense. But what really did him in, besides impatience, was the decline of L.A.’s defense, from 13th in efficiency last season to 25th this season. For someone billed as a defensive guru — thanks, Tim Duncan! — that simply isn’t good enough.

And just like that, all the euphoria over the additions of Dwight Howard and Steve Nash has been dashed, and the Lakers are in the shocking position of having to pick up the pieces with the season barely underway.

Doing this sooner rather than later gives them more time to indoctrinate a new coach. Lakers fans have been clamoring for former Utah fixture Jerry Sloan — who spent several days observing the Spurs during training camp, you might recall — Mike D’Antoni or one of the Van Gundy brothers. Some even hold out hope that Jackson, despite whispers of a bad relationship with Jim Buss, would return for his third stint with the Lakers.

What does this mean for the Spurs? Nothing that we’ll ever hear publicly, at least from head coach Gregg Popovich, who is a huge “control what we can control” guy. You know, pound the rock and all of that.

But it probably doesn’t bother them at all that we’re not even 10 games into the regular season, and their top two rivals have both been rocked by major personnel moves, first Oklahoma City with the trading of James Harden, and now the Lakers.

Even with 77 more games to go until the playoff sprint begins, the Spurs’ decision to stand pat is looking better and better in the wide-open Western Conference.